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David Beckham Surfing & Santas With Hams: 10 Best Surf Adverts Of All Time

Just sometimes those advertising execs manage to get it right...

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We’ve seen the ten worst surfing adverts of all time. Now, in the interest of balance, we thought it might be a good ideas to find examples where the commercialisation of surfing actually has a happy ending.

“These are rare examples where surfing and ads haven’t managed to rub each other the wrong way…”

From beer in the 1970s, cologne in the 1980s, Coca Cola in the 1990s and everything from chocolate, ham and price comparison sites in the last decade, here are some rare examples where surfing and advertisements haven’t managed to rub each other the wrong way.

MoneySupermarket.com Does Jaws

Jeff (Geoff?) is pretty cool. He wears speedos with a lovely paunch. He rides an inflatable crocodile at 80ft Pipe and 120ft Jaws, does some radical rotations and handling one impressive wipeout.

If you hadn’t worked it out it is all superimposed (apologies for the spoiler), but it looks like at least someone who has surfed at least once before was involved in the footage and edit.

There’s enough humour to make it all work – the can of sunscreen that Jeff launches over his shoulder to ignite a beach barbeque is pure gold.

Tooheys Beer With Mark Richards

There’s a whole generation of Australian surfers who can recite every words to the song for this ad for an Australian beer called Tooheys.

Made in the early 80s, a few years after Mark Richards had won his fourth world title, the song is damn catchy.

“There’s a whole generation of Australian surfers who can recite every words oF this ad”

This combined with fairly accurate lyrics (“With a proud Novocastrian grin, he was the first champ to ride the twin fin”) and the overall likability of Mark Richards (and his signature raised eyebrows) the advertisement still remains a favourite for many older Aussies surfers who still like to raise a Tooheys (or two) whenever they come across it.

Corona Extra’s From Where You’d Rather Be

It’s a three minute clip of beer surf porn shot by noted surf director Taylor Steele that documents road trip down the west coast of Mexico in a beat-up 1976 Winnebago.

A pack of attractive twenty-somethings frolic joyfully in the golden Californian light and fun right points of Mex to the song ‘Miles Away’ by Years Around the Sun.

It’s all very cinematic and although you know you are being manipulated by master craftsmen to buy overpriced Mexican beer that tastes like catpiss, somehow you still like it anyway.

Guinness’ Big Wave

We are not exactly sure about the correlation between “Moving Over to Guinness” and late ‘70s Hawaiian surfing is, but we don’t care.

“It still makes you want to both drink Guinness and go surf Hawaii at the very same time”

Classic North Shore footage of Pipe and Sunset is cut with the swirls and foam of a pint of Guinness getting poured, all soundtracked by a composition by Bill Whelan (who later wrote Riverdance) and ends with a sax solo by Rafe Ravenscroft.

It ran in cinemas in Ireland from 1981 to 1983, but even now still makes you want to both drink Guinness and go surf Hawaii, at the very same time. Now that is a remarkable achievement.

Coca Cola’s Nias Ad

In the early 90s in Australia, you couldn’t beat the feeling of seeing surfers like Luke Egan, Jodie Cooper, Kye Fitzgerald and Stuart Bedford-Brown on your own TV surfing perfect Nias.

Obviously pre-internet, seeing surfing on the telly was a revelation that caused pant wetting levels of excitement for a teenage grom.

Even 25 years on, the backhand turns still stand the test of time and we can forgive Jodie Cooper her wooden acting for the huge barrel she scores in her sexy red one-piece.

Just watching it on YouTube still makes me want to go out and buy a Coke right now.

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